1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for photographing with a lens barrel. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for photographing with a lens barrel, having the lens barrel removable from a camera main unit, and in which contacts for electrical connection between the camera main unit and the lens barrel can be handled easily.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
A camera known in the art is constituted by a camera main unit and a lens barrel secured to the camera main unit removably, which is typical in such a type as a SLR (single lens reflex) camera, or digital still camera. In order to transmit and receive electric signals between the lens barrel and the camera main unit, electric contacts are used. Examples of documents related to this are U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,208 (corresponding to JP-A 11-142935), U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,419 (corresponding to JP-A 2002-055388), JP-A 2000-106640 and JP-A 2001-125187. The camera main unit sends a lens driving signal to the lens barrel through the contacts. If an image pickup element is incorporated in the lens barrel, the lens barrel sends an image signal to the camera main unit.
There is a problem in the known structures of the lens barrel and the camera main unit. When the lens barrel is separated from the lens barrel, the contacts of those appear externally, and are likely to be broken because of lack of the protected state. Also, the contacts, when positioned to appear externally, are not acceptable in consideration of the design of appearance of the camera.